| The Roleplaying Game of the Viet Nam War | |
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Front cover of the first edition Recon rulebook |
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| Designer(s) | Joe F. Martin |
| Publisher(s) | Role Playing Games, Inc. |
| Years active | 1981–1984 |
| Genre(s) | Miniature wargaming |
| Language(s) | English |
| Players | 4–10 |
| Random chance | Percentile dice (2d20) |
| Skill(s) required | Strategy, Tactics |
Front cover of The Revised RECON, illustrated by Kevin Siembieda |
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| Designer(s) | Erick Wujcik, Kevin Siembieda, Matthew Balent, Maryann Siembieda |
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| Publisher(s) | Palladium Books |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Genre(s) | Wargaming |
| Language(s) | English |
Recon (appearing later as RECON) is a role-playing game wherein players assume the role of U.S. military characters during the Vietnam War.
Contents |
The first edition was written by Joe F. Martin and published by RPG, Inc. in 1981. This edition introduced the idea of easily created and disposable characters. A supplement – Sayaret & Track Commander (1982) – and a pair of adventure modules – The Haiphong H.A.L.O. and Hearts & Minds (both 1983) – were released to involve player characters in other mercenary missions, rather than just the Vietnam War.
The second edition, Revised RECON, was released June 1986 by Palladium Books. Many of the basic rules were kept the same, but author Erick Wujcik made an attempt to "balance" them. This was achieved by reducing elements of chance or luck. For instance, rather than randomizing the number of skills a character had, one could select a number of skills based on his class. Another significant change was the concept of a "minimum" skill level for weapon proficiencies. These were originally decided by rolling percentile dice, which meant that a character could theoretically have a skill level anywhere from 1 (meaning that he was a very poor shot) to 100. However, in the revised edition, a low roll could be "bumped" up to whatever the minimum skill level was for that particular weapon (usually 20–30). Also notable in the revised edition was the substantial amount of information it provided about equipment and vehicles. Whereas RPG Inc.'s version had only limited information regarding guns, the Palladium edition had pages of gun statistics as well as detailed descriptions of air- and seacraft and tanks.
Palladium published a "deluxe" revised edition April 1999. This was a reprint of both Revised RECON and Advanced RECON, a supplement released February 1987 that introduced new rules, focusing more on the characters' lives after the wars.
RECON bears the distinction of being the only active game series published by Palladium Books that is not compatible with any of the other games in their Megaversal system. However, Palladium provides conversion rules in order to bring things in line with the rest of their role-playing game series.
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